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Large print Thanksgiving word search

Sixteen words for the fourth Thursday in November: the Pilgrims and the Mayflower, the turkey and gravy boat, the parade, the football and the leftovers the next day.

Words read across, down and diagonally, left to right, in big capitals. When every word is found, the letters left over spell a saying about a full table.

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Prints on US letter paper: the puzzle page, then the answer key on its own page (2 pages in all). In the print window, choose your printer, or Save as PDF to keep a copy.

Solving tips

Look for the rare letters first: a Z, Q, J, X or K is easy to spot in big print. Then circle the long words, which cross more of the grid. Every letter belongs to a word or to the hidden saying, so the uncircled letters left at the end are the saying, in order.

In this grid, 6 words read across, 5 words down and 5 words diagonally, and none read backward. The longest is Dinner rolls and the shortest is Yams, which hides best: look for it last.

About the words

President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving in 1863, after magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale had campaigned for years. In 1941, Congress set the holiday on the fourth Thursday of November, where it remains.

Cornucopia: Cornucopia is Latin for “horn of plenty.” In Greek myth, it was the horn of the goat who nursed the infant Zeus, and it became a symbol of abundant harvests.
Dinner rolls: Soft yeast rolls arrive warm in a basket, to be split and buttered or used to mop up the gravy. Many families have a recipe handed down for generations.
Drumstick: The drumstick is the lower part of a turkey’s leg. It is dark meat, a favorite of many guests, and it is easy to hold in the hand.
Football: Football has been part of Thanksgiving since the 1800s. The Detroit Lions have hosted a game on the holiday since 1934, and Dallas joined in 1966.
Gravy boat: A gravy boat is a small pitcher with a long spout and a handle, often sold with a matching saucer underneath to catch drips. It keeps the pan sauce warm and easy to pass.
Green beans: The green bean casserole, made with canned mushroom soup and crispy fried onions, was created in a company test kitchen in 1955 and became a holiday standard.
Harvest: Harvest festivals are among the oldest celebrations in the world. The 1621 gathering at Plymouth, later seen as the first Thanksgiving, followed the colony’s first autumn crops.
Leftovers: The meal usually makes more than anyone can finish. Turkey sandwiches, soup and pies enjoyed the next day are as much a part of the holiday as the big dinner itself.
Mayflower: The Mayflower sailed from Plymouth, England, in September 1620 with about 100 passengers, and reached Cape Cod in November. Plymouth, Massachusetts, was settled a few weeks later.
Parade: New York’s big Thanksgiving Day parade began in 1924, organized by a department store, and features marching bands, floats and giant character balloons.
Pilgrims: The Pilgrims were English Separatists who left for religious reasons. After time in the Netherlands, they sailed in 1620 and founded Plymouth Colony in what is now Massachusetts.
Pumpkin pie: Pumpkins are native to North America. Early colonists baked them whole, filled with milk and spices, and the first printed American pumpkin pie recipes appeared in Amelia Simmons’s 1796 cookbook.
Relatives: Thanksgiving brings together grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles, and often several generations around one long table. Many people travel a long way to be there.
Turkey: Wild turkeys are native to the Americas, and Indigenous peoples in Mexico raised them long before Europeans arrived. Spanish explorers carried them to Europe, and they came back with colonists.
Wishbone: The wishbone is a bird’s fused collarbones. Two people pull it apart, and the one with the larger piece gets a wish, a custom with roots in old European folklore.
Yams: Most “yams” in American grocery stores are really sweet potatoes. True yams are a different starchy root from Africa and Asia, with rough, bark-like skin.

The hidden saying (no peeking until you have found every word): This proverb means that a gathering is better with more people in it. It is an old English saying, found in print for centuries, and no one author is known.

Prefer a screen? Cottage Word Search is the same kind of puzzle to play free in your browser, with hints and saved progress.

Large print Thanksgiving word search